Past the second watershed. Of the six balances: 1 lost, 2 tipping, 3 not assessed. Position at least 80 of 100. The balances not assessed can only move it further.
- Biological degradation Tipping Does this tool damage the living world, or the body, faster than either can recover? Tipping: the tool has begun to cause this problem, without going past the limit.
- Radical monopoly Lost Can people still meet the need another way, without this tool? Lost: the tool is clearly past the limit.
- Overprogramming Not assessed Does using this tool require training or certification that people cannot give each other? Not assessed: nobody has looked at this yet, so it is not counted as holding.
- Polarization Tipping Does this tool move power or advantage to a few, at others’ cost? Tipping: the tool has begun to cause this problem, without going past the limit.
- Obsolescence Not assessed Does this tool force people to replace what still works? Not assessed: nobody has looked at this yet, so it is not counted as holding.
- Frustration Not assessed Does this tool give back less than it takes, counting everything it takes? Not assessed: nobody has looked at this yet, so it is not counted as holding.
What it does
Carries a few people and their things from door to door, quickly, over a road network built for cars, on electricity instead of petrol.
Where it stops
Not where the car stops. It cuts exhaust and greenhouse gas emissions, but keeps the speed, weight, and road space that give the car its radical monopoly.
How easily you can stop using it
As hard as leaving the car, wherever towns and jobs are built for driving. Repair needs specialist knowledge and equipment.
What is scored
- The unit: The battery-electric private car, together with the roads, parking, and settlement pattern it inherits from the private car. Left out: electric bicycles and electric buses.
- The job it is tested against: Carrying a few people from door to door, quickly. It does this reliably.
- Where and when: The United States and Europe in the 2020s. Three of the six balances are assessed.
This record exists because of a question on the private car record: should electric cars be catalogued as a separate tool? They are, here, so that the question can be answered with evidence. Illich’s answer, in advance, was that a change of fuel does not change the tool.
What Illich saw
In Energy and Equity he wrote that “even if nonpolluting power were feasible and abundant, the use of energy on a massive scale acts on society like a drug that is physically harmless but psychically enslaving” (“The Energy Crisis”). Tools for Conviviality makes the same point about electricity directly: “Even clean and equally distributed electricity could lead to intolerable radical monopoly of power tools over man’s personal energy” (chapter III, “Frustration,” p. 93). His objection to the car was its speed, its power, and the way it reshapes towns until walking and cycling stop working. None of that depends on what is in the tank.
What the evidence says
- Climate: an electric car does much better than a petrol one. The International Council on Clean Transportation found that medium-size battery electric cars registered in 2021 have life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions 66–69% lower than comparable petrol cars in Europe, 60–68% lower in the United States, 37–45% lower in China, and 19–34% lower in India.
- Air: exhaust is not the only pollution a car makes. The OECD reports that wear from brakes, tyres, and road surfaces will soon overtake exhaust as the leading source of fine particles from road traffic, and that heavy electric vehicles with long-range batteries “could compound the problem even as they slash emissions from engine exhaust.”
- Equity: early subsidies went to the well-off. Borenstein and Davis found that in the United States “the top income quintile has received about 90% of all credits” for electric vehicles.
The six balances
Scored as set out in How to evaluate tools: 0 if the balance holds, 1 if it is tipping, 2 if it is lost.
- Biological degradation: 1. Far lower greenhouse gas emissions than petrol cars, but non-exhaust particles remain and may grow with vehicle weight.
- Radical monopoly: 2. The road network, the distances, and the dependence are the car’s, unchanged. This is Illich’s central objection, and the change of fuel does not touch it.
- Overprogramming: Not assessed.
- Polarization: 1. Purchase subsidies have flowed mainly to the highest earners, at least in the United States.
- Obsolescence: Not assessed. See the open questions.
- Frustration: Not assessed.
Where the threshold falls
Radical monopoly scores 2, so the electric car is past the second watershed. With a total score of 4, its position is 70 + 10 = 80. It is a cleaner car, and that matters for the climate, but as a tool it sits where the car sits. This is not a verdict on electric bikes, buses, or trains, which are different tools.
Open questions
- Obsolescence: do software updates, proprietary diagnostics, and battery replacement costs shorten the life of electric cars or tie owners to the manufacturer? This needs evidence before it is scored.
- The private car record was placed before the five-balance method existed. Scored the same way, would it sit higher than the electric car, and by how much?
- Does the electric bike deserve its own record? It may sit in the convivial range, close to the bicycle.
Sources
- Borenstein, Severin, and Lucas W. Davis. “The Distributional Effects of U.S. Clean Energy Tax Credits.” NBER Working Paper 21437, 2015. https://www.nber.org/papers/21437.
- International Council on Clean Transportation. “A Global Comparison of the Life-Cycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Combustion Engine and Electric Passenger Cars.” July 2021. https://theicct.org/publication/a-global-comparison-of-the-life-cycle-greenhouse-gas-emissions-of-combustion-engine-and-electric-passenger-cars/.
- Illich, Ivan. Energy and Equity. London: Calder & Boyars, 1974. https://www.davidtinapple.com/illich/1973_energy_equity.html.
- Illich, Ivan. Tools for Conviviality. New York: Harper & Row, 1973. https://archive.org/details/illich-conviviality.
- OECD. “Measures Needed to Curb Particulate Matter Emitted by Wear of Car Parts and Road Surfaces.” December 2020. https://www.oecd.org/en/about/news/announcements/2020/12/measures-needed-to-curb-particulate-matter-emitted-by-wear-of-car-parts-and-road-surfaces.html.